Innovative suicide prevention training offered

MONTCLAIR, NJ — The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the leading suicide research and prevention organization in the United States, is hosting a training session on suicide prevention that focuses on the whole family. This innovative style of therapy, “attachment-based family therapy,” is the only empirically supported family therapy model designed to treat adolescent depression.

The event will be Tuesday, May 23, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave. in Montclair. Attendees include counselors, couple and family therapists, health care administrators, mental health professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists, and social workers.

ABFT emerges from interpersonal theories that suggest adolescent depression and suicide can be precipitated, exacerbated or buffered against by the quality of interpersonal relationships in families. ABFT aims to repair interpersonal ruptures and rebuild an emotionally protective, secure-based, parent-child relationship. The treatment initially focuses on repairing or strengthening attachment and then turns to promoting adolescent autonomy.

AFSP offers continuing education credits, at no additional cost, through the National Board for Certified Counselors.